Hypodermic needles are in common use today on syringes, catheters, and related devices. They are used for subcutaneous injection, the taking of blood samples, the intravenous administration of medicines, biopsies, and other medical procedures. The needles are usually supplied in sterilized individual packages and are meant to be used once and then disposed of, although some needles are meant to be re-used after sterilization. A single use of a hypodermic needle renders it non-sterile and septic, and potentially contaminated by blood-borne diseases which may be present in the patient. Such contamination can include AIDS, hepatitis, venereal disease, and other blood-borne diseases.
A hypodermic needle has a sharp end for the purpose of better penetrating the human body. A major source of injury and infection to health care workers has been the accidental sticks and jabs by septic, used hypodermic needles. Before their disposal or re-sterilization, the accidental penetration of the body by these jabs causes a deep puncture wound. A stab by a needle that has been used in an infected patient can spread the patient's infection to the health care worker. The major cause of the spread of the AIDS epidemic and the hepatitis epidemic to health care workers has been the accidental stabs of these workers by previously used, contaminated needles.
This problem is often aggravated by the fact that disposal of medical debris is often made in modern plastic garbage bags. These garbage bags are easily punctured by the disposable, contaminated hypodermic needle. Accidental stabbings can occur to the maintenance personnel or other personnel involved in the disposal of medical refuse.
In the case of sterilization, reusable needles, accidental stabbings can occur between prior use and later sterilization.
Some attention has been given to developing guards for hypodermic needles to protect from accidental needle stabs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,936, to Smith, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,302, to Burke and Raines, show needles with caps over them. Although the caps, once in place, will protect from needle stabs, the act of placing the caps over the needles places the fingers holding the cap in front of the tip of the needle. While inserting the tip of the needle into the cap, a "near miss" can stab the fingers holding the cap. Capping the needle may place the health care worker in more danger of accidental needle stabs than if the needle were disposed of without a cap at all.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,989, issued to Dallons et al., shows a cap attached to the needle assembly. This provides for convenience in preventing the misplacement of the cap, but does nothing to keep the fingers from being in front of the needle tip when applying the cap. Once again, this patent shows a misconception in the past. This misconception is that needle jabs will be prevented by placing a cap over the end of the needle. In actuality, many of these accidental stabbings occur during the process of placing such a safety cap over the hypodermic needle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,336, issued to Pedicano et al., shows a needle guard cap that requires that fingers to be in front of the tip of the needle to apply the cap, but the cap has a large flange guard to protect the fingers when inserting the needle into the cap. Unfortunately, the resulting cap is large, cumbersome, relatively expensive, and is not part of an integrated needle assembly. This cap is not in common use in the medical profession.
A device for the prevention of accidental needle stick injuries has been developed and introduced by ICU Medical, Inc. of Mission Viejo, Calif. This device is a pop-up needle guard. This guard has an open end that allows the health care worker to inject the patient with the needle. Unfortunately, this open end can "pop-down" or "pop-off" to expose the tip of the needle, after the guard is "popped-up" following injection. Simple inadvertent wiggling manipulation of the device can cause this inadvertent "pop-down" or "pop-off". This wiggling is facilitated by the fact that the diameter of the guard must be larger than that of the needle, especially at the open end of the guard. Also, a simple hard jamming motion on the tip of the guard after it is "popped-up" can cause it to "pop-down", exposing the needle. Also, this needle-guard assembly must have two moving parts assembled together. The snap-lock portion requires precise engineering, manufacture and assembly. This is an extremely costly feature in relation to the cost of the hypodermic needle itself, and deters wide-spread use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a guard for hypodermic needles to prevent accidental needle stab injuries by previously used, septic, hypodermic needles.
It is another object of the present invention to prevent puncture wounds and the spread of infectious disease to health care workers and others.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a guard that can be inserted over a used needle without requiring the fingers of the health care worker to be placed in front of the tip of the needle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a guard with a closed end over the tip of the needle so that an accidental jabbing motion will not cause the guard to "pop-down" and again expose the top of the needle.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a guard assembly as a part of an integrated needle assembly capable of inexpensive manufacture, compact size, convenient use, and reliability.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a means by which a hospital or other health care facility can accommodate the desires of its medical service personnel to reduce the risk to them of injury from needle stabs and infection by AIDS and other blood-borne diseases.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.